Every project, no matter how basic it seems, or how many projects came before it, has something to teach me. Many are easy to remember to do – wrap & turn is now permanently ingrained in my working knitting vocab. Some things are a bit trickier, like fit adjustments, or “tailoring” for knitting. My most recent project contained one such lesson. Here is my “Golden Bamboo” sweater:

I am actually pretty happy with the way it came out. I struggled a little at first with the multi-stranded bamboo Yarnia yarn. I was fussing over the tension irregularities in the individual strands and trying to “fix” them by smoothing them out, but it only made it worse. After I put my perfectionist side in check and just let the yarn come and go freely, it knit up beautifully and quickly. Still have to keep a keen eye on the stitches though to avoid missing a strand in a stitch. It weighs two pounds, which I found kind of amusing, because it is a very heavy yarn per yard. The weight actually make it feel very luxurious on, and I love wearing it with and without the long-sleeved shirts that make it wearable across the seasons.

The pattern is “Lapis Yoke ” by Hannah Fettig, which I modified slightly by not knitting the sleeves and finishing the lower edge with garter rather than rib. It is a very pretty pattern, and I loved the way it let the yarn really shine in simple rib stitches. So far, so good. As you can see, it fits nicely… in the front. The thing I didn’t anticipate is that the joyous simple construction (top down, round yoke increases evenly all around, and an even 50-50 split to create back and front) lead to one unexpected fit issue.

The back, as you can see, is not quite so brilliant a fit. It kinda bags out along the edge of the yoke, and I’m holding my arms forward. It looks almost silly big if I stand up “model straight” in it. Interestingly, in typical “too little, too late” fashion, I found a tidbit in a caption under a picture of a round yoke sweater in my latest issue of Interweave Knits that stated an important subtle fit detail of the round yoke sweater is that the back section should contain fewer stitches than the front to ensure a proper fit. Shirley Paden I remembered, in her book Knitwear Design Workshop, states that as knitters we treat the front and the back as though they are the same, and mostly, because knit fabric is so flexible, we get away with it. But in reality, the body, especially the average woman’s chest, is not symmetrical at all between the front and the back. Apparently I ran into one of those instances where this fact actually matters. I thought maybe I made the whole thing too big, but I love the fit around the front side. I could pinch about four inches in the back though! So, this set of notes will have to go into my “lessons learned” list, which I am starting in my knitting notes on my computer today. Who knows when it’ll come up again, but I sure wish I had a “tip” sheet with this on it when I started this project!

I think I figured out the fix, if I made it again, or if anyone else reading this post wants to adjust for a larger bust line than this pattern allows for.

I would knock out two to three sections of the “pie pieces” at cast on (only 4-6 stitches) to reduce the back yoke width, then calculate it up to the ending edge, I would set aside 10-15 sts. fewer for the back than the front when joining at the underarm. Now, this means that the overall size of the body at the chest point would be 3-4 inches smaller, which apparently in my case would be better. I think to hourglass it back out to the hips, which did fit pretty well, I’d also compensate with a few extra increases after the waist point in “darts” at the back. Interpret as you will, but this is my best guess for how to take this sweater pattern from “good” to “perfect” in the fit department for me.

As I said, still love the sweater, and I would still recommend the pattern. Happy Knitting!

Now, organizing my stash has been tedious at times. Some of my wool was in tough shape. When I moved a few years back I stored my stash in boxes without benefit of moth or moisture protection and much of it suffered when it didn’t get unpacked for the first couple of years. Over time, I have moth balled, steamed, skeined and soaked about half of this yarn. Even non-wool items couldn’t join my studio stash until they had been thoroughly treated to prevent the mildew smell from spreading.

Even Lil One recently joined in on the effort, and a couple of weeks ago witnessed her Mom laboring over a beloved but bedraggled skein of gold Harrisville Shetland yarn. She loves yarn, so she offered to spin the swift… before getting distracted by bubble blowing duties 😉 .

I began trying to skein this wool yarn only to realize my “golden treasure” was in many pieces (about 25-30 ish). I thought, “Oh no! What now?” I had a yarn fantasy all set – the triple strand knit, the sophisticated sideways glances as I walked along through crisp fall leaves in my elegant little snood. Well, I’d just have to “make it work”! I began felting the pieces back together, and carefully winding them onto my swift yard by yard… Several hours later, and a “How much could it cost for a new skein?” from an “outsider”, I had re-assembled the skein. I know, slightly insane, but I can’t bear to give up on my favorite stashed yarns! Here is the pile midway through:

So, this was all for a “use up some old stash” project. I have a whole lotta yarn to knit up to trim my fat stash back down to size, so a multi-strand invention seemed just the ticket. I was inspired by Yarnia and Fig Knits blog week post involving mohair, to combine this “rescue yarn” with two other leftovers, Stacy Charles “Ritratto” and a Hand-Dyed 2/14 Alpaca-Silk from Valley Yarns (Webs). Here they are separately:

And here is the resulting mixed yarn ball:

And then, after all that, I was able to knit up my Eyelet Cowl with what amounts to a worsted weight yarn. It was kind of magical how several small amounts became a couple of nice healthy balls of yarn. I found the Cathy Carron pattern pretty straight forward, but I modified it a little by adding two extra knit rounds to each repeat. It knit up springy and wonderful, and the resulting fabric has a real Victorian feel to it. I finished it off with a nice velvet ribbon rather than the i-cord to really up the vintage feel. Ta-dah!!

I know, where’s the modeled photo? Well, this is a super cozy winter knit. Please! You could not pay me to pretend it’s cold in this August heat! I promise to show it off properly when the weather turns cool again.

So, this was a little crazy, even for me. In the end, I love it even more because it was so involved.

So… my friend, “nutmegknitter”, mentions to me one night at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch that she heard about this custom yarn shop called Yarnia. That very night, I went right to it on the net. I of course, fell in love.

“Gold Beach” The name is just warm and inviting, especially considering the cold and snow of late. It was a six strand yarn, 5 bamboo, one rayon, and had all the gorgeous colors of warm sunsets and aqua seas rolled into one. Several of the strands are variegated and multi-strand twists themselves. Heaven for someone like me who loves silky textures and sumptuous colors. A couple of weeks later, five cones of this complex feast for the eyes arrived on my doorstep:

So this is the new yarn in my life – colorful, silky bamboo and just oh so dreamy. Or so I thought, until… the swatch:

Now I’m not saying I fell out of love with it. I just cooled my jets to a more reasonable “really nice yarn”. I worked up a swatch on U.S. 7 for the rib and U.S. 9 for the stockinette getting about 16 stitches over 4” in the stockinette section. It is gorgeous to look at, but in swatching I noticed one problem – two of the six strands became slack while I worked the swatch which caused me to have to fuss with it pulling them in line periodically to keep the strands smooth while I worked them. Of course the other expected problem, but never did it with this bulky a yarn, was splitting. I had to watch each and every stitch. It is a very thick knit when made up which will be great for fall, but this was not really the joy I was seeking.

Yarnia yarn is a great idea, but since the yarn is composed of six strands of independently spun yarn which are simply carried as one (no ply or twist added), handling is tricky. I will of course work with it because, well… it is just really pretty and silky. But be forewarned if you are love struck by a multi-strand yarn such as this – it may bring a little hassle as well as a lot of beauty to your knitting.

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All content in my blog is part of my creative and artistic efforts. Please ask before borrowing content, usually I am happy to share. In general, content, including photos, patterns and written material: Copyright 2012, Crystal Guistinello, all rights reserved. Furthermore, patterns are for personal use only and you may not edit, publish, copy or commercially exploit the patterns in any way.